


Mage Chapter 1

by Adrenok



Category: Mage: The Ascension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 15:19:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4569405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adrenok/pseuds/Adrenok
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A first draft of a work based on Mage: The Ascension mechanics.  As the story progresses, elements of Vampire: The Masquerade will also be included.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mage Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

                _Trent ran.  His breath heaved in his chest, his legs burned from exertion.  He’d been running for what felt like hours, yet he sprinted on ignoring his body’s pleas for rest.  Every step felt like wading through a bog slowing his progress, keeping him further from his goal.  The streetlights lit the rain slick path in yellow circular islands stretching out forever ahead.  No matter how many lights he bolted past, an equal number lay ahead, taunting his efforts to save his friends._

Hold on everyone, I’m coming!, _he screamed in his own mind pushing down the protests from his overworked body.  Sleeping soundly in bed, he was awakened by an ethereal scream His fiancé Judith cried out for help through his thoughts, and he knew better than to disregard it as his own imagination.  Barely pausing to get dressed, he raced out the door of his small apartment and hadn’t stopped since._

_The warehouse they used to conduct their rituals loomed ahead seemingly deserted with its blacked out windows and boarded up doors.   Any squatters who thought to occupy the structure quickly changed their minds as a sense of unescapable dread paralyzed them with fear, warning them away lest they walk into terrible danger.  The ruse was necessary to prevent the uninitiated from catching a glimpse of their work being unable to cope with the apparent impossibility of what they’d see.  Technocracy adepts have indoctrinated the world into believing that the principles of science are the only reality that exists.  Most people couldn’t understand the power of Will shaping reality to the Awakened one’s desires.  The paradox created by magickal acts upon the structured reality was only enhanced by ignorant onlookers turning a minor annoyance into a potentially deadly problem._

_Not even bothering to hide his power, he ripped the chain off of the basement hatch with a slashing gesture and flung the hatch away with a mere empowered thought.  The blinding fluorescent lighting invited him into the sterile basement hallway.  He scrambled past forgotten storage rooms and dusty shelves, weaving his way towards the old production room.  Shouts of exertion and terrified screams emanated from the central area.  Strange lights and shadows preyed upon the drab corridors making him feel uncomfortable in these familiar surroundings.  Fresh rust pervaded the metallic rails, and gaping holes yawned within the walls where they should have been whole.  It was as if the warehouse were decaying rapidly, as though the structure was on the verge of collapse where it was perfectly whole just hours before._

_After an eternity of running, he finally came upon the double doors of the ritual site and flung them wide open.  The sight playing out before him stopped him dead in his tracks.  Blood covered every inch of the room producing a fetid reek like pus from an infected boil.  On the floor was drawn a large summoning circle surrounded by foul smelling candles.  The wax dripped unnaturally sliding down the lengths in greasy slick runnels.  A black pool dominated the far wall bubbling like a boiling tar pit.  Each time the surface burst, a tortured scream wailed out from the unknown blackness._

_Hunched, char black creatures were dragging bodies away.  Mostly other nightmarish things, but Trent immediately recognized the limp form of his friend Gabriel flung on one of their backs.  The tar-like substance crawled up his skin, thirsting for its newest prey.  Slowly, he melted into the enveloping darkness of the portal disappearing into some unknown Hell on the other side.  Another of the creatures dragged Aubrey by the ankle towards the undulating pi.  She screamed and kicked at her abductor to no avail.  As the youngest member of the cadre, she was too inexperienced to use magick in her defense._

_Trent cupped his hands and drew upon the sphere of Force.  A small ball of white flame coalesced in his palm, and he ran with the inferno straight at the disgusting deamon.  Rage fueled him onward, pain kept him focused.  With a loud roar escaping his parched lips, his palm collided with the deamon’s head exploding it in a shower of molten cinders.  Its body collapsed on the floor in a boneless heap sloughing off into a loose pile of charred skin.  Trent turned and saw Aubrey’s beaten body laying at his feet reaching out for his help, her salvation.  He reached for her coming only inches from her outstretched hand when a pile driving force slammed into his chest._

_Trent’s lungs emptied with a loud gasp, the sudden pain shocking his senses.  Lifted off the ground, the behemoth that punched him carried him along with his fist barely touching the ground as its powerful legs sprinted towards the wall.  With a crash that made debris crumble down from the ceiling, Trent was pummeled into the surface next to the undulating portal.  Ribs cracked and the back of his head throbbed from impact of the forceful blow.  Opening his eyes, he was able to see the horrific visage of his assailant._

_Its head was squat, almost as if pushed down and flattened on the sides.  The red face had no lips, nor eyelids having just two sockets backlit with a bright orange glow from within, and a jagged maw which looked as though it was cut right into the flesh.  The beast was bright red over his entire body as though the outer layer of skin had never grown, or was flayed off revealing the large crimson bundles of muscle underneath.  It easily stood seven feet tall pinning Trent against the wall as easily as though hanging a pictured frame.  Trent smelled the stench of sizzling flesh as the deamon’s knuckles burned right through his thin shirt and cooked the skin underneath._

_The portal’s edges crawled towards his suspended frame extending out in hungering tendrils attempting to drag him in.  One tendril lapped at his cheek freezing his skin in impossible cold.  Yelling out, Trent weakly kicked out and struggled against the forces arrayed against him to no avail as all his strength was spent after such a crippling attack._

                “Not that one.  Leave him.” _came a voice from across the room.  His heart sank as he realized the owner of the soft tones, the one that awoke him to this nightmare to begin with._

_With a dismissive snort, the beast tossed Trent aside letting him crash into a crumbling desk shattering it to tinder.  Coughing up blood laden globs of phlegm, he turned himself around crawling on the ground, trying to dissuade the reality of what he heard.  Hoping that it was some ruse, some trick that played upon his shocked and shattered mind._

_Standing directly in front of the portal was the one person he trusted with all his heart.  Her long black hair danced in an invisible win emanating from whatever lay beyond the suspended murk.   A smile played upon her supple lips, a taunt, a smile of victory in a fight he didn’t even know existed._

                “Goodbye, _my love._ ” _she chuckled emphasizing the title, spitting them out as though the years spent between them meant nothing at all.  Three words that cemented her betrayal and mocked his love as a fool’s errand, a weakness that she expertly exploited.  As she disappeared into the portal behind her, his eyes focused upon an open book containing a circular silver diamond ring which he had given her just a month before.  His reverie was shattered by a scream nearby.  Aubrey was being dragged once more by the beast which attacked him, her protests falling on uncaring ears._

                “Trent!  Help, please God help me! Nooo!” _she wailed._

_His lungs betrayed him having taken too much punishment in the last few moments which had felt like hours of torture.  A whispered ‘no’ is all he managed to belt out feebly reaching out for her outstretched hand once more.  Her screams died out as her head crossed through the portal.  The last thing he saw of her face was her pleading eyes being engulfed by the darkness, and her wide opened scream being held wide before melting away into nothingness._

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

                Trent awoke and sat straight up on the bed.  He breathed large panting breaths sweating profusely from the stress of the nightmare.  Taking a moment to slow his breathing, he slowly calmed down enough to remember where he was.  The small hotel room was just another temporary space in a long line of places he’d been in the last two years.  Almost indistinguishable from the others, it had little more than an old T.V., a light, and a dresser aside from the rock hard bed that he lay on.  Finally catching his breath, he removed the covers with his shaking hands and went to the bathroom sink.

                The same dream has haunted him every night since it had happened.  Subtlety different each time, he still hasn’t escaped the failures of that dreaded night.  Sometimes he makes it there to find nothing but a blood strewn room.  Other times he puts up a valiant defense alongside his friends hoping to reverse the terrible events.  It always ends the same, however, with him bolting wide awake, hands shaking, breath heaving, and being drenched in sweat.  The weight of his failures crushing his spirit all over again.  He’d not had a restful sleep since.

                Splashing water on his scruffy face, he peered into the mirror to see the toll taken by the restless nights.  Heavy bags lay under his dark brown eyes, a testament to the emotional tortures he’s endured for the last two years.  Fingers brushed on the edges of the burn scar he’d endured all those nights ago, a reminder of his purpose.  His resolve reaffirmed, he quickly washed up and threw on his clothes rushing out into the fleeting light.  Tracking Judith was becoming increasingly difficult, and this lead wouldn’t stay hot for long.  Pulling the ring from his pocket, he jumped into his car and let his senses expand trusting in his insight to find his prey.  And once he stands before her, she’ll answer his questions and answer for her crimes, whichever one comes first.


End file.
